Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Best feet forward and a coconut

Its been such a long time since I walked the beach with my 4 legged mate in tow. He has watched eagerly this last week willing me to grab the camera, his cue to race to the gate and walk his favourite place.

This week is a new beginning and yes my terrible feet are decorated with bright blue nail polish - the preferred colour of little feet - he will think they are great, I know. The coconut, well I happen to love coconut and of course it is the new health 'discovery', and this tree on the beach is the sweetest coconut in town, and I do know where the best coconuts are. Making coconut milk has been a weekly past-time for me for nigh on a year now and has been consumed by human, dog and chooks and there have been obvious benefits for all of us.

The beach is so inviting and the heavy dark colours of the impending storm only heighten my senses and I have forgotten how much I have missed walking my favourite stretch of sand. It has suffered from the rough seas and looks a little less vegetated but still so beautiful and the play of light soothes the mind.

Sandworm carcasses intermingled with mangrove seeds line the beach at the highest point of the rough tides from Oswald - thousands of empty tubes and my mind takes me to glazing and the effects they may create. The beach always prompts thoughts of clay so I know I won't be too far away from sitting at my wheel again.

It has been such a long time since I did clay seriously and this was a blog about my dance with clay. Life can twist and turn, both good and bad and that has happened in the last few years. I have had much joy in my life but there has been sadness in the family and there will be heavy hearts forever and I now think before I complain about mundane things.

I am looking forward to sitting with dog and chooks as my companions, feeling the rhythm of the wheel and the gentle movement of the clay under my hands. This is a strange new experience - this life alone and I wonder how my creative juices respond. For 61 years I have been someone's child, sister, wife, mother, wife again, mother, nona - I am still all these things except someone's wife but for the first time I am living alone with all the time now to return to that creative passion of moving the clay. It is an exciting prospect. Hopefully then this blog will be my new clay journey but first the house needs some minor adjustments!

As for the coconut tree, here it is with a damaged bush almond on the right and the remnants of its mate entangled around the base of the coconut. Palm cockatoos love the bush almonds but many trees have fallen to the ocean's wrath but there are still enough to entice the rare and endangered birds to feed.

MUDHEART POTTERY

About Me

I am Nona (grandmother) to 4 little boys - oh what fun! I love my family and we all share a love of art. Weipa is an isolated mining town in Cape York - a potter's paradise! Local bauxite and kaolin feature heavily in my work and reflect my unique surroundings. I love leaving little marks with my fingers and shells, little secrets for the user to find on closer inspection. I spend hours glazing my pieces adding little touches of colour with my Weipa shino to catch the changing patterns and light I see every day. For me there is pleasure from mixing in handfuls of Weipa clay right through to the firing. It is all a labour of love I never tire of.